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Scottie Scheffler is a killer on the course, but he’s got a soft spot for these little things

Published

4 months ago

August 16, 2024

Scottie Scheffler, who is quite legitimately one of the nicest men in professional golf, has a bit of a mean streak. A highly competitive dude, he harbors no compunction about squashing his opponents like a bug. But if an actual bug gets in his way, he shows his soft side.

There’s a lesson in there somewhere. We think.

Ranked No. 1 in the world by a ruthless margin, Scheffler seems poised to inflict further misery on his peers after shooting a tidy but not especially pleasing five-under 65 Friday at the FedEx St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind. At nine-under 131, he trails co-leaders Hideki Matsuyama and Denny McCarthy by two strokes, which ain’t much ground to make up for a guy with six wins this year and is coming off a furious rally to win the gold medal in the Olympic golf competition.

“Yeah, I could have hit it closer [to the hole], could have hit a few more greens, could have made a few more putts,” said Scheffler, who wasn’t so much complaining about his bogey-free round as he was sounding like your typical weekend woulda-coulda-shoulda golfer. “Nice to have clean card, though.”

Scheffler, who leads the FedEx Cup standings for the third year in a row after the regular season, simply is not a nice person to be around with a club in his hand. He’s not as cutthroat as Tiger Woods, who gleefully enjoyed running up the score, as it were, during many of his record-tying 82 tour wins. But Scottie is equally determined to get the “W” and is none too pleased when the mission isn’t accomplished.

While playing for a second day in a row with Xander Schauffele, who is second in both the World Ranking and the FedEx Cup standings, Scheffler showed his softer side. Not to Schauffele, of course. Nope. Beat him by four shots